Georgia in the American Revolutionary Era

Revolutionary War in Georgia Watch the video on how the American Revolution started. Read the article and answer the questions. SS8H3 Analyze the role of Georgia in the American Revolutionary Era.Though Georgians opposed British trade regulations, many hesitated to join the revolutionary movement that emerged in the American colonies in the early 1770s and resulted in the Revolutionary War (1775-83). The colony had prospered under royal rule, and many Georgians thought that they needed the protection of British troops against a possible Indian attack.Georgia did not send representatives to the First Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1774. The Congress asked all colonies to form a group, called the Association, to ban trade with Britain. Georgia delegates gathered in a provincial congress in Savannah on January 18, 1775, to discuss whether to join the Association, and to elect representatives to the Second Continental Congress. Those who were elected declined to go to Philadelphia, however, because the delegates were divided on the action to be taken. St. John's Parish, acting alone, sent Lyman Hall to the Second Continental Congress.News of the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts caused many Georgians who were wavering in their allegiance to join the radical movement. A group called the Sons of Liberty broke into the powder magazine in Savannah on May 11, 1775, and divided the powder with South Carolina revolutionaries. Those who resisted royal government were usually called "Whigs," and those who remained loyal to the king were known as "Tories." Whigs were also referred to as "patriots," though the British thought of them as "rebels." Tories were also called "loyalists."Though Georgians continued to drink to the health of the king, they took government into their own hands when the Second Provincial Congress met in Savannah on July 4, 1775. The Congress named delegates to the Second Continental Congress already sitting in Philadelphia and adopted the Association's ban on trade with Britain. The single most important democratic action of the Congress was the establishment of local committees to enforce the Association's ban. Thus political power devolved upon artisans and farmers, considered by royal governor James Wright to be the "wrong sort" to be allowed in government. The Congress adjourned, leaving executive authority in a standing Council of SafetyJames WrightViolence in the BackcountryThe heavy-handed tactics of the local committee inAugustaled to the first violence in the backcountry. On August 2, 1775, members of the committee confrontedThomas Brownat his residence on the South Carolina side of theSavannah Riverabove Augusta. Brown had come to Georgia with seventy or so indentured servants in November 1774 in answer to Governor Wright's advertisement of the advantages of the newly Ceded Lands above Augusta and founded a settlement called Brownsborough. He attracted the anger of the Whigs by publicly denouncing the Association and summoning friends of the king to join a counter-association. When he refused to swear to honor the Association, the crowd of Liberty men tortured him in various ways, scalping and fracturing his skull, burning his feet, and hauling him, unconscious, through the streets of Augusta as an object lesson to those who would denounce the Association.When he recovered, Brown retired into the Carolina backcountry, where he and other leaders enlisted hundreds of loyalists and threatened a march on Augusta. After much marching about and some skirmishing around the town of Ninety-Six, Brown and his friends heeded South Carolina governor Sir William Campbell's advice to await the arrival of the British. Brown retreated to Florida and persuaded Florida governor Patrick Tonyn to allow him to recruit a corps of rangers who would lead Indians to fight on the frontiers in conjunction with the expected landing on the coast. Meanwhile, rumors of a British-instigated plot to enlist enslaved Africans and Indians to help defeat the American patriots alarmed Georgians and Carolinians. Though false, the rumors were generally believed, and John Stuart, the Indian Commissioner, fled in fear for his life from Charleston, South Carolina, to Florida.Battle of the Rice BoatsGeorgia Signers of the Declaration of IndependenceThe arrival of British warships in the Savannah River in January 1776 caused the first crisis in Savannah. The Council of Safety, convinced that Savannah was the object of the British incursion, placed Governor Wright under house arrest and instructed Colonel Lachlan McIntosh to take charge of the defense of the city. There followed the so-called Battle of the Rice Boats on March 2-3, 1776, when British warships seized rice-laden merchant ships in the Savannah harbor. The seizure of crops was the British purpose, not the capture of Savannah. The fleet sailed with the rice and with the fugitive Governor Wright and his chief councilors.In the absence of the governor, the next provincial congress met in Augusta and proceeded to draft a simple frame of government called "Rules and Regulations" that went into effect on May 1, 1776. The congress elected Archibald Bulloch president and commander in chief of militia. George Walton joined Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett as Georgia delegates to the Philadelphia convention in time to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. 1) Explain why Georgia hesitated to join the Revolutionary movement.2)Explain who the "Whigs and Tories" were.3) Why did Governor James Wright refuse the "wrong sort " to participate in government? 4) What was the reason for the Battle of the Rice Boats?5) Who were the Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence?